6 surfers make it into the top 50 highest sports earners in Australia

If you were in any doubt that there isn’t any money to be earned from the sport of Surfing, figures released by Business Review Weekly in Australia prove that if you have the drive and the talent, Surfing can more than pay the bills. With 6 surfers in the top 50 highest sports earners, raking in a total of $11.25 million don’t ever let your Mum and Dad tell you can’t make it big riding a surfboard!

Mick Fanning was the highest earning Australian surfer in 2014, pocketing $2.7 million without taking his prize winnings into account. Sponsors are willing to pay massive amounts of money to anyone who puts their brand fully in the public eye and Mick not only coins it in from Dragon Sunglasses, Rip Curl, Red Bull and many other sponsors, he also makes huge amounts of cash from his deal with Reef and his bottle opening flip flops.

Stephanie Gilmore was the highest earning female sportswoman in Australia in 2014, netting $1.75 million, with the majority of this amount made up with her lucrative sponsorship arrangement with Roxy. The other four Australian surfers to make over a million dollars from surfing in 2014 were, Julian Wilson ($2 mil), Joel Parkinson ($1.8 mil), Taj Burrow ($1.5 mil) and Josh Kerr ($1.5 mil).

So with a lot of hard work and the right sponsor, Surfing can set you up for life although you need to back this up with competition wins as well. Now I am beginning to wish I had bunked off school more and gone surfing instead! Are you astonished by the huge amounts that surfers can earn or do you think this is fully justified, especially when you compare it to sports like football and basketball?